MU Column: Virtual workshops

'Let's clap a pulse at the same time together.’ I clicked to un-mute my fellow facilitators, all pro drummers or percussionists, and counted them in. A cacophony of clapping ensued – it sounded more like a poor performance of Steve Reich's Clapping Music than six drummers simply trying to clap a pulse at the same time. ‘So, it doesn't look like we can use Zoom to play music together…’

My wife and I set up our world-music workshop company Inspire-works in 2002, and collaborate with a large team of workshop facilitators who work with over 65,000 children. We usually have four or five facilitators leading whole-class workshops in different schools every day during term time. This literally stopped overnight when the government asked schools to close.

We began to think – how could we still inspire the children at home, and ensure continuity of employment for our workshop facilitators? During the first week of the lockdown, I invited our facilitators to join me for a Zoom meeting to experiment with drumming together and to try different ideas for leading workshops online. Six facilitators agreed to join the meeting with whatever drums and percussion instruments they had to hand at home.

We met for about 90-minutes each day during that week and quickly found out what is and isn't possible online. We had an idea to lead an online workshop with a panel of facilitators on Zoom and stream it live on YouTube so others could drum along with us. We recorded some simple backing tracks in GarageBand, using the same drums that each facilitator was playing so the sounds would be consistent. We then planned ahead to create moments in the workshop where everyone could play together. To do this, the host would mute the other facilitators on Zoom, so the backing track would be audible on the YouTube broadcast. The facilitators would then play along (muted), and ensure that they stopped a beat early, to look like they've been playing in time! Our first YouTube live drumming workshop was on 30 March – and we have been leading workshops each weekday at 2pm ever since.

We've built up a loyal following and have spent each week focusing on a different style of music – Brazilian samba drumming, West African drumming, North African drumming, Cuban and Jamaican reggae, with our YouTube viewers using junk instruments or kitchen utensils at home to join in with us. We knew we wouldn't be able to use these workshops as a significant form of income, but rather viewed them as a promotional tool for our other online resources on our website and as a way to get our name ‘out there’ for when the restrictions are over.

In addition to the daily live YouTube workshops, we're now using the same techniques to lead Zoom whole-class workshops with several of our regular schools where we had previously been leading weekly First Access Programmes. It's only a few weeks into the programmes, but so far it's going really well, and the children are enjoying learning at home playing various objects instead of real drums.

We've also found the whole experience has had a positive effect on our facilitators’ wellbeing. Like many peripatetic music tutors, our facilitators would have usually been working alone in schools without much contact with other music colleagues. However, the Zoom workshops have allowed us to have tremendous fun and laughter playing music together, which has lifted all our spirits during this difficult time. All of these experiences make us ponder how best to lead workshops in the long term.

Inspire-works holds the Guinness World Record for both the largest samba band and largest drumming lesson. You can view Inspire-work's live drumming workshops via YouTube.